Ulvis Alberts was born in Riga, Latvia and immigrated to the
U.S.A.with his family from Ravensburg, Germany in 1949. He
graduated from the University of Washington in Seattle with a
B.A. degree in radio/television. Some of his first photographs
in Seattle were of Bob Dylan (1966), Jerry Garcia of the
Grateful Dead (1967) and guitarist Jimi Hendrix (1968). The
Hendrix photographs are now in Paul Allen's collection at the
Experience Music Project museum in Seattle.

In 1973, on the basis of his short and documentary films, he was
invited to audit the filmmaker's program at the American Film
Institute in Beverly Hills. He moved to Los Angeles and
photographed some of the most celebrated movie personalities of
the 1970's and early 1980's. They included: Groucho Marx,
Christopher Reeve, John Wayne, Peter Sellers, Nick Nolte, Jack
Nicholson, Jack Lemmon, Paul Newman and others.

In 1977, he photographed the World Series of Poker at Binion's
Horseshoe Casino for the first time. He returned to shoot the
series for five more years. His first fine art photography
book, Poker Face, was released in 1981. It has become a
collector's item and often sells for as much as $2000 if you can
find a copy.

Ulvis' photography has been published in a wide variety of media
around the world for almost four decades.